The Woven Lines of Elements & Designs

Chapter 3

Voices…

There's so many voices… but I can't tell what they're saying. It's like I'm listening from underwater. I try to open my eyes but I can't. I can't feel anything in my body… the darkness took me away from my body once again… down into unconsciousness

                                   •••

I was aware again, and there were still voices. This time, there were shouts, ones that sounded like excitement. My eyes were closed still, but I could see bright lights behind them. I began to register that instead of numbness, there was pain.

I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn't. The only thing that I could think or feel was the pain. I didn't try to move, I just stayed how I was, willing the pain to go away.

I felt something cold against my head…I think it's someone's hand…

As the pain eased away, my eyes slowly opened.

My vision was blurry, but was becoming less so with each passing moment. I was finally able to identify that the hand that was against my forehead belonged to my friend, Jason.

I was confused, as Jason had been gone from school for a week, his boyfriend saying he wasn't answering any texts and that he was probably sleeping off a virus. The same one I assumed Casey picked up.

"Hey," I heard a soft voice call from above me.

Casey.

"C..a..sey?" I croaked out.

"Yeah, I'm here," she said with the same softness as before.

I tried to turn over to look at her, but Jason pulled on my shoulder, stopping me.

"Lu, you can't. Your gonna have to stay here a minute more." He said.

Frustrated and confused, I did as he said. He put his hand back on my head and closed his eyes. Slowly, my head started to feel better, and the feeling went down through my whole body.

Was… was Jason healing me?

When he pulled his hand away and opened his eyes, he look back at me and said, "how do you feel?"

I didn't know. I felt weird. I felt fine physically but there's a bunch of sensations in my head, ones that were not there before. I didn't know how to explain this though, so I settled on nodding.

Jason gave a small smile. "Ok well that's good." He said, standing up.

It was only then that I noticed he was completely naked. Not a scrap of clothing on him. He didn't even have any of his piercings in.

"Holy shit!" I said before I could stop myself.

When that came out of my mouth, Casey immediately came around from wherever she was behind me and crouched down in front of me, hair standing up as if she contained all the static in the world, and also naked.

What the fuck.

Whatthefuck whatthefuck whatthefuck.

"What is going on!?" I yelled, an octave higher than usual.

"We have no clue," Casey responded. "We all just woke up here… with nothing. Jason woke up first, and he saw Alex unconscious next to him, so he went up to him and put a hand on him, wishing and willing him to get better, and he did. Alex could tell it was Jason that made him heal, so he said to try it on me, since I was next to him. It worked, so then Jason did it on you."

She stopped then, letting me process everything she'd said.

I didn't know what to think. Casey was looking intently at my face, trying to see what I was thinking.

For the most part, the only thing I was thinking was that this can't be real.

My heart started racing and my chest got tighter the more I thought about it.

How did we get here?
Where are we?
What about our parents?

Casey noticed my breathing getting heavier and put her hands on my shoulders.

"Hey, Luna, it's gonna be okay. We're going to get out of this. Do you feel anything… off? I mean, besides the obvious?"

Was… was she talking about those weird new feelings? My brows furrowed in thought. I thought about the strongest one. I thought of it like a path, and down that path, I felt.. the ground. I focused on it more, only to be met with screams and yelps.

"What the hell?" Alex said, breathless.

"What was that? We don't live on a fault line!" Casey exclaimed.

"No offense Casey, but I doubt we're anywhere near Florida." Alex said. "The fauna isn't fit for Florida."

Jason was looking around, and his narrow eyes settled on me.

"I think Lu did it."

Everyone turned to look at me, and I shrunk back, feeling self-conscious.

I did it? But I didn't do anything!

"Is there something in your head that wasn't there before? Like it feels as natural as breathing but it's not?" Casey asked.

I blinked at her, my eyes wide as she described what I was feeling.

I decided to follow that path again, and got the same result: screams and yelps.

Ok maybe it was me. But how?

"Wait… Casey, how did you know?"

She stood back, and put her hand up, like she was going to high five someone. But she spread out her fingers, and lightning zapped between them. Bright white bands of lightning.

I stared at her, dumbfounded.

"Jason can heal, I can make lightning, what's to stop you from causing earthquakes?"

"Earthquakes?" I asked.

"Yeah that's what you did." Alex stated.

Wait… if I make an earthquake, then why didn't I feel grounded?

I always felt happier, more at ease around nature, but I didn't feel that way here…

Could it be?

I looked around.. it certainly looked like we were on Earth, but it didn't feel like Earth. We were on a big expanse of rock, the top of a waterfall. There was a river and the river was coming out of a forest.

I got up and went over to the river before it fell off the rock cliff. I put my hand into the water.

It felt like regular water…

With my hand in the water, I felt another sensation in my head. It didn't feel the same as the first, but I tried following it.

"The water's running backwards!" Jason exclaimed.

I yanked my hand out of the water and stopped following the second path.

The water was running the same way again.

"You think she controls all the elements?" I heard Casey asking behind me.

"Looks that way." Jason responded.

I looked around.. ok maybe the forest will be better and get this weird feeling to go away. I ran past everyone and went to the edge of the forest.

My suspicions were proved correct. Mostly.

The trees and plants were definitely real ones, but there wasn't a single creature in it… Strange…

I tried looking for the path again, the one that controlled Earth, and it was much stronger now that I was in the forest. As an experiment, I went back out to my friends.

Weaker.

Oh no…

"Hey guys…" I called, most of their attention still on me.

They looked at me, waiting for my response.

I cleared my throat and said, "I… I don't think we're on Earth." I said.